Tina’s shoes
Nathan’s car
The cow’s horns
The nouns shown have something belonging to them. Tina has a pair of shoes, Nathan has a car and the cow has horns.
Do you know what has to be added to those nouns to show that they own those things?
It is the apostrophe ( ‘s ).
So, we have Tina’s shoes, Nathan’s car and the cow’s horns.
These are Possessive Nouns.
The possessive form of a singular (one) noun is made by adding ‘s to it.
The carpenters’ tools
The shopkeepers’ goods
The ostriches’ beaks
Do you know what to add to the plural nouns to change them into the possessive form?
An apostrophe ( ‘ ) is added.
The possessive form of a plural ( two or more ) noun is made by adding ‘ to it.
The laces of the shoes.
The corners of the die.
The sleeves of the shirt.
The handle of the basket.
Shoes, shirt, die and basket are non-living things.
How do we show that something belongs to them?
The two words ‘of the‘ are used.
Possessive form of a non-living thing is made by using ‘of the’ .
When a noun has something, we change the noun to its possessive form – by adding ‘s‘, apostrophe or ‘of the‘.
These are some more examples:
Singular nouns:
The farmer has a dog.
That is the farmer’s dog.
The boy has a pen.
This is the boy’s pen.
Plural nouns:
The farmers have dogs.
Here are the farmers’ dogs.
The two boys have pens.
These are the two boys’ pens.
Non-living things
The house has a gate.
That is the gate of the house.
The cars have doors.
Here are the doors of the cars.
